Ako Si Jamie
13th March 2013, 23:12
Sipalay, Negros Occidental
We arrived at Bacolod around 7am and took a taxi from the airport which is actually situated north of the city in Silay. We were heading for the South Ceres Bus Terminal where we would take the bus to Sipalay.
Our bus was already there but wasn't due to leave for another twenty minutes so we grabbed some siomai and shanghai lumpia and ate it on board. Ive never had siomai before and this particular one resembled the taste of a marmite sarnie.
The bus was non aircon and took five hours to reach our destination. We could have taken one of the modern aircon coaches but this would have meant a four hour wait.
The ride was fairly uncomfortable as the seats weren't big enough for two adults, more like one adult and an anorexic sprog.
About a third of the way into the journey, a woman got on the bus at Hinigaran clutching a copy of the 'Biblia', stood at the front and began to preach to everyone for the entirety of the leg to Kabankalan City. I'm not sure which religious group she was from. Maybe she was a JW or from Inglesia de Christo. Either way, the whole bus looked disinterested.
The bus stopped regularly but it did pick up speed when it could and that included corners which resulted in luggage in the racks above to fall on an old man's head.
Shortly after leaving Kabankalan City, the bus conductor saw me with a cigarette and told me I wasn't allowed to smoke. His observation skills couldn't have been great as that was my fifth since Bacolod and I was seated in the middle of the bus. I actually thought smoking on non aircons was allowed as is the case in Zambales and Maria seemed to think so too.
We arrived in Sipalay City at midday and I was quite relieved to get off the bus for various reasons.
Sipalay City is located in south west of Negros Island in the province of Negros Occidental. Both Dumaguete and Bacolod are around 100 miles away by road so its quite isolated from the two main cities on the island.
It really shouldn't have the city bit after its name as its no more than a market town. There is no ATM machine, hardly any restaurants but it does have a big beach and a fairly plush hotel called Sipalay Suites which is guarded by 'tooled up' security personnel.
The main attractions in this part though are two other beaches located away from the city. One is Punto Gallo, popular with divers and the other is Sugar Beach, popular with beach lovers. We came for the latter.
Because of the lack of accommodation available on sites such as Agoda in the Sipalay area, we made do with a pension house which was booked online for one night. The next day we would look elsewhere. It was a block or so away from the market square situated opposite an Inglesia de Christo church.
We were shown to our brightly painted turquoise room which contained double bunked beds, cable TV and a surprisingly good AC unit. It didn't have a bathroom so we had to use the communal one which had no toilet seat or toilet roll and didn't flush, but for 650 peso's for the night we couldn't really complain.
The pension house was another establishment that wasn't very friendly towards travel adaptors and it took a stool and an opened bible to make sure it stayed in the socket.
Because of the lack of proper restaurants in Sipalay City we ate at one of those resto's that doesn't have a menu and just serves what's in the pot. On offer that evening was a generous serving of pancit canton/crispy noodles. It was extremely nice and came with drinks and a few other bits and pieces. I think it cost 118p in total which satisfyingly fed us both.
Our main objective for the next day was to find more suitable accommodation. We had taken several numbers of hotels on Sugar Beach beforehand and our first choice, Fiesta Cove was contacted and rooms were immediately available. They didn't have a website so we hadn't seen any pictures of the hotel and had to rely on a few good online reviews.
According to the internet, to get to Sugar Beach from Sipalay City required a 30 minute boat journey at a cost of 600 peso's. I thought this was a bit steep so we asked a trike driver if there were any cheaper alternatives. There was - the back route. This consisted of a 20 minute trike ride and then a 100m ride across a lagoon on a tiny boat costing 200p altogether. From here we arranged to meet a worker from the hotel who would guide us through the 'jungle' for about a mile. He carried some of our bags so we gave him 100p for his troubles.
By now the rain was falling and wouldn't cease till evening. Fortunately the typhoon that had swept across Mindanao and was working its way up towards Palawan never hit this part of Negros although it did close Dumaguete Airport for awhile.
Fiesta Cove was situated at the far end of Sugar Beach. It's a small four bedroomed hotel with each room boasting a balcony. There was no restaurant or a bar but it did have a bathroom and a toilet that flushed and came with a seat and a full quota of toilet tissue.
The hotel was extremely quiet and the only noises that could be usually heard were waves and mosquitoes. The room itself was very presentable and cosy and was probably the best room out of the eight hotels we stayed in. At 1500p I considered it a bargain.
Sugar Beach itself was very peaceful too and I think I saw more dogs than tourists. There are about half a dozen hotels/resorts along the half a mile or so sandy stretch. Several have restaurants in which you can dine at.
From the photos I've seen previously of Sugar Beach I expected the sea to be turquoise but it looked more Cleethorpes than Cancun to be honest. The weather wasn't great and there wasn't much to do here so instead of staying the four nights in this part of Negros like we originally planned we headed to Dumaguete a day earlier.
Sulu Sunset, a beach resort close to Fiesta Cove was our regular dining spot and we noticed that they had their own boat which charged only 300p to get back to Sipalay City.
The sun briefly appeared amongst the clouds as we left Sugar Beach on the pleasant boat journey back. After waiting for half an hour for a bus in Sipalay along came a Ceres Liner aircon bound for Bacolod. We were planning to take the coastal road to Dumaguete which meant changing buses twice at Hinoba'an and Bayawan but instead we retraced our steps taking the Bacolod bus and alighting at Kabankalan City and then onto Dumaguete. It meant an extra hour or so journey time but the view coming down from the mountains towards Bais City was worth it.
Fiesta Cove, Sugar Beach
7881
Sugar Beach
7882
7883
Leaving Sugar Beach
7884
Sipalay City
7885
7886
7887
We arrived at Bacolod around 7am and took a taxi from the airport which is actually situated north of the city in Silay. We were heading for the South Ceres Bus Terminal where we would take the bus to Sipalay.
Our bus was already there but wasn't due to leave for another twenty minutes so we grabbed some siomai and shanghai lumpia and ate it on board. Ive never had siomai before and this particular one resembled the taste of a marmite sarnie.
The bus was non aircon and took five hours to reach our destination. We could have taken one of the modern aircon coaches but this would have meant a four hour wait.
The ride was fairly uncomfortable as the seats weren't big enough for two adults, more like one adult and an anorexic sprog.
About a third of the way into the journey, a woman got on the bus at Hinigaran clutching a copy of the 'Biblia', stood at the front and began to preach to everyone for the entirety of the leg to Kabankalan City. I'm not sure which religious group she was from. Maybe she was a JW or from Inglesia de Christo. Either way, the whole bus looked disinterested.
The bus stopped regularly but it did pick up speed when it could and that included corners which resulted in luggage in the racks above to fall on an old man's head.
Shortly after leaving Kabankalan City, the bus conductor saw me with a cigarette and told me I wasn't allowed to smoke. His observation skills couldn't have been great as that was my fifth since Bacolod and I was seated in the middle of the bus. I actually thought smoking on non aircons was allowed as is the case in Zambales and Maria seemed to think so too.
We arrived in Sipalay City at midday and I was quite relieved to get off the bus for various reasons.
Sipalay City is located in south west of Negros Island in the province of Negros Occidental. Both Dumaguete and Bacolod are around 100 miles away by road so its quite isolated from the two main cities on the island.
It really shouldn't have the city bit after its name as its no more than a market town. There is no ATM machine, hardly any restaurants but it does have a big beach and a fairly plush hotel called Sipalay Suites which is guarded by 'tooled up' security personnel.
The main attractions in this part though are two other beaches located away from the city. One is Punto Gallo, popular with divers and the other is Sugar Beach, popular with beach lovers. We came for the latter.
Because of the lack of accommodation available on sites such as Agoda in the Sipalay area, we made do with a pension house which was booked online for one night. The next day we would look elsewhere. It was a block or so away from the market square situated opposite an Inglesia de Christo church.
We were shown to our brightly painted turquoise room which contained double bunked beds, cable TV and a surprisingly good AC unit. It didn't have a bathroom so we had to use the communal one which had no toilet seat or toilet roll and didn't flush, but for 650 peso's for the night we couldn't really complain.
The pension house was another establishment that wasn't very friendly towards travel adaptors and it took a stool and an opened bible to make sure it stayed in the socket.
Because of the lack of proper restaurants in Sipalay City we ate at one of those resto's that doesn't have a menu and just serves what's in the pot. On offer that evening was a generous serving of pancit canton/crispy noodles. It was extremely nice and came with drinks and a few other bits and pieces. I think it cost 118p in total which satisfyingly fed us both.
Our main objective for the next day was to find more suitable accommodation. We had taken several numbers of hotels on Sugar Beach beforehand and our first choice, Fiesta Cove was contacted and rooms were immediately available. They didn't have a website so we hadn't seen any pictures of the hotel and had to rely on a few good online reviews.
According to the internet, to get to Sugar Beach from Sipalay City required a 30 minute boat journey at a cost of 600 peso's. I thought this was a bit steep so we asked a trike driver if there were any cheaper alternatives. There was - the back route. This consisted of a 20 minute trike ride and then a 100m ride across a lagoon on a tiny boat costing 200p altogether. From here we arranged to meet a worker from the hotel who would guide us through the 'jungle' for about a mile. He carried some of our bags so we gave him 100p for his troubles.
By now the rain was falling and wouldn't cease till evening. Fortunately the typhoon that had swept across Mindanao and was working its way up towards Palawan never hit this part of Negros although it did close Dumaguete Airport for awhile.
Fiesta Cove was situated at the far end of Sugar Beach. It's a small four bedroomed hotel with each room boasting a balcony. There was no restaurant or a bar but it did have a bathroom and a toilet that flushed and came with a seat and a full quota of toilet tissue.
The hotel was extremely quiet and the only noises that could be usually heard were waves and mosquitoes. The room itself was very presentable and cosy and was probably the best room out of the eight hotels we stayed in. At 1500p I considered it a bargain.
Sugar Beach itself was very peaceful too and I think I saw more dogs than tourists. There are about half a dozen hotels/resorts along the half a mile or so sandy stretch. Several have restaurants in which you can dine at.
From the photos I've seen previously of Sugar Beach I expected the sea to be turquoise but it looked more Cleethorpes than Cancun to be honest. The weather wasn't great and there wasn't much to do here so instead of staying the four nights in this part of Negros like we originally planned we headed to Dumaguete a day earlier.
Sulu Sunset, a beach resort close to Fiesta Cove was our regular dining spot and we noticed that they had their own boat which charged only 300p to get back to Sipalay City.
The sun briefly appeared amongst the clouds as we left Sugar Beach on the pleasant boat journey back. After waiting for half an hour for a bus in Sipalay along came a Ceres Liner aircon bound for Bacolod. We were planning to take the coastal road to Dumaguete which meant changing buses twice at Hinoba'an and Bayawan but instead we retraced our steps taking the Bacolod bus and alighting at Kabankalan City and then onto Dumaguete. It meant an extra hour or so journey time but the view coming down from the mountains towards Bais City was worth it.
Fiesta Cove, Sugar Beach
7881
Sugar Beach
7882
7883
Leaving Sugar Beach
7884
Sipalay City
7885
7886
7887